The Linux File System – Explained

The Linux File System – Explained

If you are coming from Windows, the Linux file system will be look different than windows. You will not find Drive letters live C:\ drive or D:\ drive. It,s going to replace by a / and Cryptic-sounding directories.

/ – The Root Directory

Everything on your Linux system is located under the / directory, known as the root directory. You can think of the / directory as being similar to the C:\ directory on Windows – but this isn’t strictly true, as Linux doesn’t have drive letters. While another partition would be located at D:\ on Windows, this other partition would appear in another folder under / on Linux.

Anyone who owns a folder, is also owner or co-owner of all subfolders and the subfolders of the subfolders (etc.). You get the picture…..

The administrator is the owner of the primary folder, the root, and has therefore primary authority over the whole system.

/bin – Essential User Binaries

The /bin directory contains the essential user binaries (programs) that must be present when the system is mounted in single-user mode. Applications such as Firefox are stored in /usr/bin, while important system programs and utilities such as the bash shell are located in /bin.

/boot –   Static files of the boot loader

The /boot directory contains the files needed to boot the system – for example, the GRUB boot loader’s files and your Linux kernels are stored here. The boot loader’s configuration files aren’t located here, though – they’re in /etc with the other configuration files.

/dev —    Device files

• Contains references to all the CPU peripheral hardware, which are represented as files with special properties.
• These include terminal devices, usb, or any device attached to the system.
• Example: /dev/console, /dev/tty, /dev/ttyS0 etc

/home – Home Folders

The /home directory contains a home folder for each user. For example, if your user name is Rumy, you have a home folder located at /home/rumy. This home folder contains the user’s data files and user-specific configuration files. Each user only has write access to their own home folder and must obtain elevated permissions (become the root user) to modify other files on the system.

/lost+found –    Recovery files

• Files that were saved during failures are here.
• Each partition has its own lost+found directory.
• This is the place where corrupted files are placed when they are found during a filesystem check.

/media – Removable Media

The /media directory contains subdirectories where removable media devices inserted into the computer are mounted. For example, when you insert a CD into your Linux system, a directory will automatically be created inside the /media directory. You can access the contents of the CD inside this directory.

/usr – User Binaries & Read-Only Data

The /usr directory contains applications and files used by users, as opposed to applications and files used by the system. For example, non-essential applications are located inside the /usr/bin directory instead of the /bin directory and non-essential system administration binaries are located in the /usr/sbin directory instead of the /sbin directory. Libraries for each are located inside the /usr/lib directory. The /usr directory also contains other directories – for example, architecture-independent files like graphics are located in /usr/share.

/proc – Kernel & Process Files

The /proc directory similar to the /dev directory because it doesn’t contain standard files. It contains special files that represent system and process information.

/mnt – Temporary Mount Points

Historically speaking, the /mnt directory is where system administrators mounted temporary file systems while using them. For example, if you’re mounting a Windows partition to perform some file recovery operations, you might mount it at /mnt/windows. However, you can mount other file systems anywhere on the system.

/opt – Optional Packages

The /opt directory contains subdirectories for optional software packages. It’s commonly used by proprietary software that doesn’t obey the standard file system hierarchy – for example, a proprietary program might dump its files in /opt/application when you install it.

/net —     Mount directoty for remote file systems

• Standard mount point for entire remote file systems

/run – Application State Files

The /run directory is fairly new, and gives applications a standard place to store transient files they require like sockets and process IDs. These files can’t be stored in /tmp because files in /tmp may be deleted.

/sbin – System Administration Binaries

The /sbin directory is similar to the /bin directory. It contains essential binaries that are generally intended to be run by the root user for system administration.

/var – Variable Data Files

The /var directory is the writable counterpart to the /usr directory, which must be read-only in normal operation. Log files and everything else that would normally be written to /usr during normal operation are written to the /var directory. For example, you’ll find log files in /var/log.